Nightingale
by deepthinker566
Summary: When the BAU gets a case that they can't solve alone, they enlist the help of two more "specialized" FBI agents.
1. The Case

_Hi! This is my first ever Fan Fic. I would love to hear your reviews so that I can fix anything and make it better. Enjoy!  
The events that take place here, happen during the time of the when the first season was. _

**April 1st, 2008**

It was a normal day at the BAU office in Quantico, Virginia. Agents and officers were arriving to start their shifts for the day. Dr. Spencer Reid stood next the coffee pot as he waited for the first cup to brew. From across the office, Derek Morgan nonchalantly looked up from his desk to notice Spencer busy pouring his coffee. He bent over the side of his chair, and opened up a drawer in his desk. A few seconds later he arose with a slight, yet innocent smirk across his face. He cautiously walked over to Reid's desk and placed an object on his seat. Elle looked at him suspiciously, and then she had a slight smirk on her face as well.

"Morgan, don't you think you're a little too old for those things?

Morgan looked at her, signaling her quiet as Reid made his way back to the desk. He stood up and walked over to Elle.

He leaned down over her desk and pointed to a random object on her desk, to draw attention away from him.

"…and that's when we went to Disney World with the family. That's me next to Mickey Mouse" Morgan said, loud enough for Reid to hear.

Reid interjected with a random fact, like Morgan planned, "Believe it or not, the character concept of Mickey Mouse was not created by Walt Disney, but he had taken the idea from another cartoonist, Ub Iwerks. "

Reid smiled to himself, as he usually did after he mentioned a little known fact. He took his seat in his chair while sipping his coffee.

"Pbbbbbttttttthhhhhhfffffft"

The noise had slightly startled Reid and he spilled a few drops of coffee on his wool sweater vest. Morgan had a big chuckle out of that; he walked over to Reid laughing. Elle just smiled and shook her head.

"Hey Reid! You fell for the oldest trick in the book man, its April Fool's day." Morgan was still chuckling between his words.

Reid smiled at the childish prank; he couldn't get angry at Morgan. He reached underneath him and pulled out a flat, pink rubber pancake.

"Ah yes, the Whoopie Cushion. Made in 1930 by a Canadian toy maker; a staple of _childlike_ behavior in today's modern society."

Reid tossed the prank toy back to Morgan, and went back to sipping his coffee. He wiped off the specks that landed on his vest, and started looking through a file on his desk. Morgan patted him on the back, before he went back his desk and sat down. Reid looked up at him.

"Morgan, if there's a 'kick me' sign on my back I'm going to shoot you." Reid said, jokingly.

"Nah man, I'm saving that one for Hotchner," Morgan replied.

Morgan found a file of his own to look at on his desk, and started flipping through it. He reached over and grabbed his cup of coffee. Raising it up to his mouth to take a drink, there was a warm sensation on the front of his shirt. His eyes traveled down to cup to reveal a hole in the side, allowing the coffee to dribble down him. His eyes shot wide open as he put the coffee back down on his desk.

"A damn dribble glass!" He said, as he shot up from his desk, wiping off his shirt

Reid looked up again, this time with a smirk of his own. "Hey Morgan, April Fools."

Morgan sighed for a moment; taking in the fact the Spencer Reid had actually pulled a prank on the prank master himself. He shook his head and pointed in Reid's direction, with an accepting smile on his face.

"Nice one Reid, you got me man. Don't think it'll be that easy next time, I'm keeping an eye on you."

Morgan was just about to sit back down, when Hotchner came from his office, and yelled down from the stairs.

"BAU team, JJ has a new case for us. Play time's over, meet up in the briefing room."

Elle, Reid, and Morgan grabbed what they needed and proceeded up the stairs to the room. They had wondered why they had gotten a case already, especially this early in morning. JJ was already in the room, along with Gideon. Hotcher stood in front of the LCD television screen as the rest of the team took their seats at the round table. They shared looks to each other, waiting to hear their next case.

Hotcher opened, "Early this morning in Wichita, Kansas, a farmer alerted local authorities about some strange activity he noticed coming from his corn fields. He heard noises, saw some illumination from some flashlights. When the Sheriff's department arrived on scene they searched the field looking for what they thought to be a local group of teenagers who were known to mess around in fields late at night."

He clicked a button in his hand and some images came up on the television screen. The pictures were very gruesome, it was almost impossible to tell the bodies that were in the picture were human. The team passed some unsettling looks between each other, and let Hotchner continue now that they were really interested.

"Well, they found them. They looked like this when they got there. It looks to be the scene of a murder, and the bodies of five victims appear to be mutilated. Reports show that these are the bodies of five teenage boys. They had their school ID's in the wallets that were found on them, so it looks like nothing was stolen from them. The Wichita Sheriff's Department would like the BAU to investigate this case, as they are afraid they are dealing with a serious serial murderer."

After the last of the images were shown on screen, the team looked to each other and began to hypothesize what could have happened to the victims.

Reid broke the silence. "Most Satanic groups have a sort of sacrificial form of ritual, most involve the slaughter of small animals, most likely a sheep or a goat. Human sacrifice and mutilation is rare, but has not been unheard of throughout criminal history."

"So you think we're looking for some young kids involved in some sort of cult activity?" Gideon stated.

Reid replying, "Maybe, but all the cases I have seen, the cult has left some sort of message or symbol or something to acknowledge their existence. Until we investigate the crime scene, I don't see anything like that in these pictures. It's almost as if the boys in this picture were outright murdered."

"Perhaps, or perhaps we may be dealing with a serial psychopath, one who is going to keep killing until he is stopped. As Dr. Reid had stated, we will be able to make a more accurate profile after we get down there, these pictures aren't going to do us any justice," Hotchner had said from across the room.

JJ spoke up from her seat, "We have a flight scheduled to leave soon. I've also been told that we won't be the only FBI agents there. The Bureau said that that we will have two more additions to our team on this case when we arrive."

"Two more agents? This case must be serious if they think that we need help," said Morgan

JJ looked across the table at him, "They said they are experts in this field, so I'm sure we can all learn something from them."

"Hey guys," Reid interrupted. He was looking closely at some of the picture from the crime scene. "Look at this picture." He leaned over to Gideon, and pointed towards some of the ripped clothing on one of the boys, "Those cuts in his shirt, and along the visible parts of the body, they don't look to be inflicted with a sort of knife, or straight edged weapon. They almost look like claw mark."

Gideon looked the picture and nodded with what Reid had said. "It was a farm, do you think that maybe the unsub had found a rake, or a piece of farm equipment to do the crime?"

"No, I don't think so. These cuts are jagged and seem to tear the flesh, as opposed to scraping it open. The amount of blood lost also indicates knowledge of the human anatomy in regards to the veins and arteries. These boys died of blood loss rather quickly, and it looks like the unsub just kept ravaging them after they had already died. "

Reid looked at the pictures a moment again.

"It…it almost looks like the unsub_ had _claws"


	2. Markings

_Hi guys, thanks for checking out chapter 2! I hope you like it, as always I am always open for advice/constructive ideas._

The team had assembled the things they would need for the case. It was roughly a two hour and thirty minute flight from DC to Wichita. When they arrived, they drove from the airport to the local Sheriff's office to see what they had gathered from the scene and to look at evidence. The office building was busy with deputies running back and forth, phones ringing off the hook, and the sounds of crying. It seems the families of these boys were notified immediately, since they were reported missing from their homes that day. Hotchner was the first one in the building and was approached by the Sheriff.

Hotchner flashed his FBI identification. "I'm BAU Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner, this is my team," He introduced the team as they walked in behind him and stood next to him, "SSAs Jason Gideon, Derek Morgan, Elle Greenaway, and Dr. Spencer Reid."

The Sheriff reached out his hand to shake each of theirs.

"My name is Sheriff Wallace, I'm glad you could fly out here on such short notice. Wichita has never seen anything like this before, so we thought we'd called you."

The Sheriff put his hands on his duty belt and walked the team over to the investigation board. Other deputies were tacking up pictures from the crime scene along with whatever evidence they deemed necessary. The same pictures they had seen at the BAU were on it, along with a few more new ones. They all had the same morbid and grotesque images of the slaughtered boys.

"This is what we have gathered so far, but I would suggest we take a drive over to the crime scene before it gets dark. Them boys are going to the autopsy now, and we should know what the killer used to do this," the Sheriff said.

Hotchner looked at him for a second, "Have had any reports any suspicious activity that may involve anything dealing with religious cults. These types of murders are more than usual, carried out by a group of psychotic individuals, likely with a pack mindset."

"No, we haven't had any of that sort of thing here as long as I've been around. The farmer's been complaining of bright lights coming from his farm for some time though, that, and random loud noises in the middle of the night, so I dunno if that's cult activity or not. He is still at his home, if you want to talk to him."

Sheriff Wallace grabbed the keys to his cruiser from his belt and nodded to the team to follow him. They drove twenty minutes outside of the main town, and got deeper into farmland. The land out here was flat. They passed a few decrepit barns and homes along the way, as well as some that looked to be demolished by tornados that had come through this area years ago. It was getting closer to the evening, and the team was running out of daylight. They planned on coming back tomorrow, but they wanted to see the crime scene as soon as they could.

The big black SUVs against the tan and green land created an ominous look as the kicked up dust and dirt along the roads. They had left the few paved roads that there were, and were now traveling along the more abundant dirt trails. You could see more imprints in the path from trackers than you could normal vehicles. It seemed strange that someone would travel so far out of their way to commit the crime, but then again, it was their job to find that out.

Ahead, up the road, they could see the outline of on the department's cruisers. Pulling up next the roped off area that had the 'CRIME SCENE' tape around it, the Sheriff and the team had exited their vehicles. On the other side of the tape, below a tree, there was a rather large patch of blood. Morgan and Gideon stepped over the rope to investigate that, while Hotchner and Reid proceeded to the farm house to talk to the farmer.

Morgan leaned over the stain of blood, "This looks to be where all five boys were found, there aren't any other spots of blood so they all were killed in this small area." He turned to Gideon, "You'd think that once the unsub had come up on them, at least one of them would have gotten away. Five teenagers wouldn't get so close to each other like that.

"Unless they were forced to be so close together. There weren't any traces or fragments of a gun being fired, but that doesn't mean the unsub didn't have one to scare them with."

With a puzzled look on his face Morgan said, "That could be a possibility, if someone had a gun pointed at me and my friends, running for it might not be the best idea."

----

Reid and Hotchner made their way up the steps to farmhouse and knocked on the door. Reid looked at his report sheet and talked to whoever was inside.

"Mr. Fuller, we are with the FBI, I know the Sheriff's Department had already spoken with you, but we may have some different questions to ask you."

"All right. Hold your horses, I'm coming."

The farmer had opened up the screen door and made his way to the wooden rocker on the front of his porch. Reid and Hotchner followed and sat the wicker bench across from him. The farmer, who looked to be in his late 50's, took out a pipe from the pocket of his plaid work shirt. He lit it and began to smoke it, before he talked again.

"Whattya, wanna know? I already talked to the local authorities, what's the government want from me now?"

Reid gave Hotchner a quick, skeptical glance, and began interviewing the farmer.

"Mr. Fuller, you said that you've reported strange activity coming from the fields of your farm over the past few days. Have you seen any vehicles drive by here on a regular basis, or had maybe seen people walking about your farm? Anything suspicious at all?"

"Well, a few days ago, I heard a loud crash over in the barn. I grabbed my shotgun and went to check it out myself. The barn door was creaked open, but when I looked inside, all that I found were some my tools knocked over like somebody had just darn near shoved it over."

Reid interjected before the farmer continued, "Did you notice any tools missing? A rake or maybe an axe?"

"No, they were all there. I just shut the door and went back to my business. Later that night though, I looked out my window to see some lights over yonder," He pointed in the direction of the rest of the team, "They looked like flashlights or maybe a lantern. I had thought some of the local trouble boys been over there jacking around, maybe had gotten into my barn. The lights didn't last very long and they went away, it was like they knew I was looking at them from all the way back here. I didn't see the lights for a few days, but they came back."

"Is that what happened again this morning? Is that why you called the Sheriff?"

"Yep, I was fed up with it. I looked out the window at about midnight, saw them lights, but I heard them boys yelling this time, they were yelling real loud. I still thought they were messing around so I went back inside and dialed. That's about all I can give you."

Hotchner stood up and shook the man's hand.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Fuller."

Reid stood up as well, and then the two were heading back to the rest of the team to tell them what they know.

-----

Morgan and Gideon were about to turn back to go to the SUV and talk to Elle, who had spoken more with the Sheriff and his deputies. Out of the corner of his eye, Morgan noticed something and branched off of Gideon's side and over to the tree. He inspected it closely, and his eyes widened as he made a discovery.

"Hey Gideon, you might want to see this."

Gideon walked over to where Morgan was standing to see what he was talking about.

Morgan continued, "Remember when Reid said that it looked like claw marks on the victims? Well look at the trunk of this tree."

Morgan ran his fingers over a set of three parallel marks that repeated on other places along one face of the tree's trunk.

"It looks like these are the same type of markings. They seem to be going up the tree, like the unsub…climbed it."

Gideon looked at the claw marks, perplexed.

"So you're saying our unsub isn't human. What is he? A bear?"

"No it can't be a bear, they have five claws on each paw, I don't know of any animal this big that has three; Reid might know. I just highly doubt we are dealing with just an animal. Maybe our unsub, thinks he's an animal though, and has tools and weapons formed to recreate his twisted fantasy."

"So now we are looking for a guy with extreme psychosis, possibly schizophrenic, and demonstrates an intense animalistic or tribal mindset. Who would fit that kind of profile?"

"Let's get some picture of this, maybe Garcia can run some scans and see if there are any matches of various claws markings.

Morgan and Gideon went back to the get a camera, just as Reid and Hotchner were returning from the farmhouse. Behind the SUVs the sound of a car was heard pulling up. A grey Sedan was kicking up some dust as it got closer to the BAU team and finally came to a rest. Two figures got out of the car. One was a male with black hair, and the other was a shorter woman with red hair. They both wore sunglasses. Hotchner walked over to them, as these must have been the two they were going to work with.

Hotchner reached out his hand to greet them, "You two must be the other agents working on this case, I'm Aar-," He was interrupted by the man

"Aaron Hotchner. I know who you and your team are.

The man wasn't even looking at Hotchner, but behind him to the crime scene. Still looking around, as if he was looking for clues he introduced himself.

"My name is Special Agent Fox Mulder; this is my partner, Special Agent Dana Scully. What do you have so far?"

They followed Hotchner over to the rest of the team, and introduced themselves again. The BAU didn't know what to think of these new agents, they've actually never heard of them, even though they were still in the FBI. They had all gathered around the back of the SUV to discuss the findings thus far.

"I'd like to see those marks on the tree," Said Mulder

Gideon looked up at him from the pictures he was looking at.

"Sure thing, they are over here follow me."

"Whatever climbed this tree climbed it before it killed those kids."

"How do you figure that?"

"These marks on the tree, they're clean. If it killed them before, there would be blood in the grooves. My guess is that it climbed up the tree, and then attacked your victims. During the night, there's no way they could have defended against an aerial attack."

"So he jumped out of the tree. Why do you refer to the unsub as an 'it' may I ask you, Agent Mulder?"

"We don't know what did this, so right now it's an 'it'.

-----

"Special Agent Scully, if I may ask what part of the FBI are you from? I've never heard of you or Agent Mulder." Reid asked.

"I cannot disclose that information Dr. Reid, but let's just say it's a very special unit of the FBI," Scully replied without looking up from the pictures. "I'd like a chance to examine the victims myself, Sheriff."

"We already have our local unit working on that ma'am, so you don't got to do that extra work."

"I wasn't asking."

-----

The light was slowly going into the evening hours, and the units packed up and headed back to the office to find proper sleeping arrangements. They were able to find sleeping arrangements in a nearby hotel, they had each gotten a separate room. Morgan walked into the hotel lobby and stretched his arms wide, almost hitting Reid in the face by accident.

"Alright team, good work out there today. Everyone get some sleep, it's going to be a long day tomorrow," announced Gideon.

Mulder and Scully had gotten a room together, with separate beds of course. Unlike the BAU, they slept in the same room, there were only two of them, and they usually stayed up and discussed their cases for awhile. Scully was one of Mulder's only friends anyway.

**7 hours later.**

Hotchner was awoken by his cell phone ringing on the nightstand beside his bed.

Groggily, he answered.

"Hotch."

The Sheriff's voice came onto the line at the other end. There was a sense of urgency and fear in his voice.

"Agent Hotchner, you need to get down to the station right away, there's something you gotta see."


	3. You've Got to See This

_Alright! Chapter 3 is finally up. This one had taken awhile to write do to distractions, but its here now! _

**April 2****nd****, 2008**

Hotchner let out a sigh and rubbed his hand over his eyes as he had now woken up. Cell phone still in hand he dialed Gideon, woke him up and told him the Sheriff needed the team down right away. Gideon said that he would take care of waking up everyone else if Hotchner got down there first. Since his presence was requested last minute, he hastily put on his suit pants and shirt. He opened the nightstand next to his bed and grabbed his badge and pistol. On the way out of his room, his black suit jacket was slung over his shoulder as he was tying his tie down the hallway. As he walked the lights in the rooms were being flicked on as the rest of the team woke.

Hotchner found the keys in his pocket and fired up the black SUV. The headlights reflected off the fog that must had come in during the night. He shifted to his low beams and fog lights as he backed out of the parking lot. He noticed a figure coming out from the motel; it was Morgan. He was just buckling his belt as he waved his hand to get Hotchner's attention. He put on the brake halfway out of the lot.

"Hey Hotch, open up I'm coming with you"

Morgan tapped the hood of the SUV, and Hotchner let him in.

"Morgan, this morning I received a call from the Sheriff asking us to come down immediately. That's where we're going."

He pulled the rest of the way out of the parking lot and headed towards the station. The roads were empty, one or two other vehicles on the road. It was only a ten minute drive from the motel to the station, and every second counted. They could see the flashing blue and red lights of the cruisers outside the office as they got closer. They pulled up behind the first one and got out to see the Sheriff. Everyone was gathered outside the office. It was soon after, that the grey Sedan pulled up along with another black SUV. Agents Mulder and Scully had arrived along with the rest of the BAU. They were led by a deputy to the Sheriff, who was standing over a body bag in front of the doors. Along the path to the entrance, there was a large trail of blood. As well as blood covering most of the front doors.

"What happened here?" Asked both Agent Mulder and Hotchner

The Sheriff walked over to them with a grave look upon his stout face.

"One of the night officers heard a loud banging noise at the door, he went to go check it out and there's Mr. Fuller laying there on the ground in a bloody heap. Helluva gash in his back, I'm surprised he made it this far."

"His farm is over twenty minutes away, how'd he get here so fast?" asked a puzzled Mulder

"He drove. That's his truck right over there; we had to move it out of the way. It's banged to hell though."

Sheriff Wallace had shown his flashlight over in the direction to an old pickup truck. It looked to be horrible dented and there were some rips in the metal. The same markings were on the truck as the tree: claw marks. Lots of uneasy looks were shared amongst the entire group.

Agent Scully pulled back to top of the body bag to reveal the mess that used to be the farmer, her eyes widened as she viewed the corpse. She had experiences with bodies, and routinely performed the autopsies on the victims in the cases she worked on. Her knowledge of the human body and its functions were impressive, but sometimes even she was stumped. She's seen strange things in the past before though.

"He looks to have been attacked in the same fashion as the other victims, except he tried to escape."

Reid walked over, Elle behind him. He kneeled down next to the body.

"It seems as though these wounds were inflicted in the same fashion. I've never seen anything like this. Look at his hands, there looks to be…some traces of gun powder. Maybe he shot his attacker, long enough to get away and into his truck"

Elle nodded her head, her eyes then traveled over to the truck.

"Then how do you explain the damage to the truck? The entire thing looks like it's just been off a cliff."

Reid opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn't produce any words to reply. Agent Mulder had overheard her comment and walked over to them.

"It chased it, clawing the back of the truck as our farmer drove away. Chances are it pulled away and moved on but since he's dead we'll never find out." He said

Elle just looked at him like he was fool. She stood up, her face went stern not with anger, but with confusion. They had never dealt with anything like this before; this entire case was something new entirely.

"That makes no sense, I'm sorry, but are you really saying that this guy probably got shot, then had the energy to get up and chase after a truck for who know how long?"

"I'm surprised to know that you think this monster to be human. Have you ever thought that maybe you're dealing with something completely off the books?

"Wait so you think this is an alien? Aliens are something from a science fiction novel, not things that go and kill people in the middle of Kansas." Reid interrupted

Mulder looked directly at him, "I know that might sound crazy to you, but there was a reason that we are on this case too. There are some things that the FBI doesn't want everyone to know."

Hotchner came over to the group, as their voices were starting to pick up. After all, the BAU had never dealt with something like this. It tended to get some of the blood going in the team. They had decided to go back to farm, to investigate any signs of a fight or struggle between the farmer and his attacker. The team hopped into their SUVs and the agents into their Sedan to drive to the farm. They were accompanied by Sheriff Wallace, while the rest of the department stayed behind to clean up the scene. As they drove, the morning sky began brighten. As the daily lives of most citizens began, the agents were well on their days already. They passed the crime scene they were at yesterday; it hadn't changed a bit, and went straight up ahead and pulled into the driveway to the farmhouse.

They were the first ones in the scene, before any local authorities were. The front door was hanging wide open. They split into two teams; Mulder, Scully, Hotchner, and Elle went into the house, and Reid, Gideon, Morgan went around to the barn.

---

Not sure what they would find inside the house, they took out their pistols and cautiously entered. The house was quaint and quiet; Mr. Fuller lived here alone as they could tell by the single chair at the dining room table. The house was empty, there wasn't any sort of crime scene in the house from they could tell. Agent Mulder put his gun away and walked over to a mantle above a small fireplace. There was a spot on the wall above it with two small hooks, obviously to hold what looked to be a rifle. Underneath on the mantle, scattered between old family pictures were a few boxes of Remington 12 Gauge shotgun ammunition. The pictures were either faded by the sun or in Sepia, he couldn't tell. Regardless, any family this farmer had was long gone. Hotchner had walked behind him, and made a comment.

"It looks like he grabbed this and ran out in a hurry. There doesn't look to be any sort of struggle inside the house, which leads me to believe they might find something in the barn."

"Agent Hotchner," said Scully said from the kitchen, "It looks like out farmer was quite the drinker of fine homemade whiskey. I wonder if that had anything to do with this." She picked up a half-empty bottle, followed by a shot glass.

Agent Hotchner followed her voice into the kitchen.

"I doubt it. I'm guessing that he heard or saw something outside, and grabbed the shotgun to interrogate in. The alcohol could have helped him drive all the way to the Sherriff's office; he may have been slightly out of place."

---

The doors to the barn were hanging wide open, just like the front of the house. From where the second team was; they had a clear view into the kitchen of the house. With his gun drawn, Morgan entered the barn. It too, was empty except for a shotgun lying on the ground. There were blood spots all around it on the dirt and straw covered floor. A few shells were scattered about. Morgan called the rest of the team inside to investigate. Morgan radioed over to Hotchner.

"Hey Hotch; I think we found what we are looking for."

"Got it."

Reid knelt over the shotgun, and rolled it over to find their favorite markings etched into the grey metal of the barrel. Gideon stood behind him and let out a sigh.

"It looks like it was knocked out of his hands; the amount of blood here definitely looks to be a struggle."

Morgan looked from the scene over to the open doors.

"So Mr. Fuller see's something from inside his house, grabs his gun, throws open the barn doors. Sometime after he came in this far, he let off a few shots, and whatever it was disarmed him. Wounded, he made a dash towards his truck and drove away. He was chased off this farm, but for how long? He had to make it away eventually."

Reid thought for a second to what Morgan had said.

"Maybe, maybe whatever his doing this can't leave this area. Perhaps it has claimed this area as its territory. That would explain the boys who were trespassing, along with Mr. Fuller."

"Then he could still be around here?"

"I don't think so, all the reports so far indicate nocturnal activity, and it's probably sleeping."

"Reid, we searched this whole barn. There's no one here except us."

They all shared unsettling looks as they could very well be in the same room as the killer, without either of them knowing. Hotchner and the rest of the team come into the barn to see what had been discovered. After hearing the idea that it may be territorial to this area, Mulder got an idea. Sheriff Wallace was waiting outside, and Mulder approached him.

"Does your department own a helicopter? I want to get up into the sky, there's something I want to check out."

The Sherriff scratched his head at the odd request. They really hadn't much need for a helicopter, and they didn't have the biggest budget. Most of the crime around was small. Murders were uncommon, and they had never seen anything like this before. He thought for a second, trying to figure out where they could find a helicopter. A new thought popped into his head.

"I don't got a helicopter, but I know some boys who got a crop dusting business. I may be able to talk them into letting one of them fly up up in their duster if you really want to get up there."

Agent Mulder didn't really have much of a choice at this moment. It wasn't a helicopter, but it would manage. He nodded his head in agreement.

"I'll take it Sherriff."

"Alright, then. I'll give them boys a call and see what I can do."

The Sherriff walked back to his car and dialed into his cell phone. Mulder had gone back into the barn, to tell Scully he had found a plane.

"Hey Scully, I found us a plane. We can get an aerial view of the area, we might find something."

"You'll be on your own there flyboy, as soon as I get back into town; I'm performing the autopsies on the victims."

Mulder let out a small laugh. "You never want to do anything fun."

It wasn't that Scully didn't _want_ to go; she was just more business about these than Mulder was. He had all sorts of off the wall hypothesizes. She was his counter, his voice of reason when Mulder had a crazy, almost ineffectual plan he wanted to pursue. However, as she had learned from the years she had spent with him so far that it was sometimes best to let him run off and do his thing.

---

The team had finished up at the crime scene, they were able to get a rough recreation of the scene they found to help their investigation. Whatever happened, it wasn't pretty. There was definitely a struggle and a fight. Now they just have to figure out has been doing this. They took samples of the blood and the shotgun into evidence. Other deputies arrived on the scene as they were leaving to seal off the house, and take pictures. The drive back to the city was a quiet one. All parties had been silently been thinking to themselves. A cell phone had gone off inside one of the SUVs, and Morgan answered.

"Morgan here."

"Hey tall, dark and handsome. I looked into some stuff for you."

It was Garcia, she reviewed some the information that the BAU had sent her.

"What do you got for me Garcia?"

"Well I cross checked animals native to the area, and it looks like none of them would be capable of doing that sort of damage. I dug down a bit further, have you ever heard of Le Chupacabra?"

"That's some sort of folk monster from Mexico or something right?"

"Yes, and legend has it that the Chupacabra has been known for terrorizing farms at night by mutilating cattle, with reports of three sharp claws on its body. The only problem with that is that it so far is only been reported in Southwest and Mexico, and no reports of it attacking humans. Sounds crazy, but maybe you might be dealing with a Chupacabra copy-cat?"

"Thanks Garcia. That was fucking scary."

"You know you love me."

Before Morgan clicked off the phone Garcia made a small roar sound, and Morgan chuckled, shaking his head at what he had just heard. Hotchner, who was driving the SUV they were in turned to him.

"What did Garcia say, Morgan?"

"Garcia thinks we may be dealing with someone, or something that thinks he's a 'Chupacabra'."

"A Chupa-what?"

Reid interjected, to explain.

"A Chupacabra. It's a creature of Spanish myth and folklore. 'Chupa, meaning sucker and 'Cabra", meaning goat. Basically translating into 'Goatsucker'. The pseudonym is derived from the fact that his creature is said to drink the blood of goats from small Mexican communities."

As soon as Reid had finished talking they had just pulled back up to the Sherriff's station, the macabre scene earlier in the morning had been cleaned up before most people would have seen the mess. There was still an ambulance there, but that had just been there just in case it was needed. The teams exited their vehicles and entered the station.

"Agent Mulder."

Mulder turned around to find the Sherriff Wallace getting off his cell phone. He flagged him over from the rest of the group, who had just sat down to start discussing possible actions. Mulder walked around the corner to talk to the man.

"I just got done talking to the pilot. He's taking off here shortly to do a run, and he said if you wanted to get up in the sky he'd take you now. He's not scheduled to dust crops again for another week; you'll have to go now if you're still interested."

It didn't take too long for Mulder to think about it, he really wanted to see the site; he had a strange feeling in his gut. He just felt like it was something he _had _to do. He walked back over to the group to quickly tell them he had to go do something. As he usually did, he did not explain his plans, just that he was going to do something. He had a way of being spontaneous and taking advantage of the things he could get, although this often led to problems later. The Sherriff led him out to his cruiser; he would let Scully take the Sedan to go perform the autopsy. The airstrip the dusters worked out of was only ten miles in the opposite direction by car, but they would reach the farm in a matter of minutes in the plane.

When they reached the airstrip they were greeted by a young pilot, he looked to be no more than seventeen or eighteen years old. He was wearing a dusty brown jacket, over some khaki pants. His head adorned the classic leather aviator's cap, with goggles and all. The cruiser pulled up to the boy and he leaned into the window.

"You must be the man from the FBI who wants a plane ride. My name is Henry, but around here I'm called Dusty, for obvious reasons. That's my plane over there."

Dusty had to shout over the sound of an engine, but he pointed behind him to a crimson-red crop duster with flaming yellow stripes on the wings. It looked to be a little kid's dream made into a reality. Something about seeing a plane with fire on it really made him feel like he was in Kansas. Mulder got out of the car and told the Sheriff he would call him when they landed. He followed Dusty over to the plane. Before he was allowed on, the boy did one last routine check on the plane. He leaned over the second seat in the plane and emerged with a helmet with a face guard. He tossed it to Mulder, who put on as he was helped into the back of the duster. He buckled in and Dusty jumped into his seat and fired up the plane. There was a loud sputter has it turned to go down the runway. Before Mulder knew it they were already traveling down the runway, and soon left the ground. Sherriff Wallace drove off back to the station after Mulder was safely off the dust-covered runway. The dirt on top rippled from the air of the engine.

While they were in the sky, you could see for miles above the town. They had to go from farm to farm dropping pesticides on the crops to avoid the locusts. Mulder had to wait until Dusty was finished hitting all the drop points on this run before they could visit the Fuller Farm. It would turn out to be worth the wait most definitely.

They approached the farm, and even from as far away as they were, Mulder's reason for traveling up into the air was turned into a reality. He fear was finally realized as they flew over the farm. Dusty leaned over the edge and did another pass by it.

"Oh my god, what the hell is that!?"

Mulder could feel the blood rushing through his veins; it was both the feeling of relief and fear. By now, they were only a few hundred meters above the farm, but they could clearly see into the crops below, a circle.


End file.
